Greater New Orleans

A federal judge has refused to block a New Orleans television station from using surveillance video of a confrontation last year inside a supermarket between store employees and an alleged shoplifter who died weeks later.
(WWL-TV)

A federal judge has refused to block a New Orleans television station from using surveillance video of a confrontation last year inside a supermarket between store employees and an alleged shoplifter who died weeks later.

Breaux Mart Supermarkets Inc. sued WWL-TV on Tuesday before the station aired the video in a report on the death of Norbert Gallego. The footage shows employees of the Chalmette store tackle and restrain Gallego before deputies arrived and took him to a hospital.

Breaux Mart argued the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office shouldn't have released the footage, but U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance ruled the chain hasn't shown that its video is entitled to copyright protection.

WWL reported nobody was charged in Gallego's death after an autopsy concluded he died of natural causes.